Utilizing an interprofessional case conference series to teach care transitions in pharmacy and nursing curriculum

Safe and effective care transitions require interprofessional collaboration, but there is limited literature on interprofessional strategies to teach care transitions. The objective was to evaluate student pharmacist and nurse readiness for change towards interprofessional collaborative practice during care transitions.

Interprofessional teams were instructed to collaborate and provide care for their patient throughout multiple healthcare transitions. Students were asked to complete the Interprofessional Socialization and Valuing Scale (ISVS) 9A/9B, the nine-item set version, prior to implementation of the case conference series and after the activity debrief.

There was an increase across six items from the ISVS scale for pharmacy students and eight of nine for nursing students. There were significant changes in two of nine items for the pharmacy groups and three of nine in the nursing group.

An interprofessional case conference series demonstrated a significant increase in student pharmacist and student nurse awareness of the importance of working within a team during care transitions, as well as an appreciation towards their role within the interprofessional team.